


Ruin the Friendship

by dragonsandgayships



Category: The Infernal Devices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-16 09:38:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16083440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonsandgayships/pseuds/dragonsandgayships
Summary: Alec and Camille have been best friends ever since eighth grade and throughout high school. They both end up going to the same college together, but things get complicated once Camille starts going out with the hot guy from one of Alec's classes.Basically Camille and Magnus are dating, but then Alec and Magnus fall for each other and they both feel super guilty about it but they don't know how to say anything because neither of them want to hurt CamilleThis is my first fic, so I'm sorry if it's not very long or very good.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's weird that I wrote this, since I normally hate Camille, but one day I randomly wondered what it would be like if she and Alec were best friends and I had been wanting to write a fic for a while but was scared to try anything, but I figured I could try out writing just a short one to see how I did and this idea stuck.
> 
> It'll probably only be about three or four chapters.
> 
> Title from "Ruin The Friendship" by Demi Lovato.

Alec Lightwood still perfectly remembered the day he had first met Camille Belcourt.

 

It had been the first day of eighth grade, and he had been prepared to stick to a very simple and usually effective course of action. He would keep his head down, only say hello to people he knew, sit with Jace and Izzy at lunch, only raise his hand in class if he were forced to or if one of his classmates had said something so unbelievably stupid that he felt the need to correct them, and just generally be unoffensive and inconspicuous the entire day. Easy enough. Be boring, be quiet, don't get noticed. It was supposed to be a failproof plan.

 

He had already failed before homeroom started.

 

Alec had headed straight to his locker as soon as he got his schedule and locker number instead of mingling with people in the halls. Isabelle and Jace had already abandoned him, Izzy to go speak to Aline and Jace to go intimidate and charm anyone who'd talk to him, Alec guessed. He just shrugged and kept walking. It wasn't really like had anyone to meet, anyways. Sure, there were people he was friendly with, but no one who would be itching to see him as soon as school started. He had never seemed to attract admirers the way Jace did, or make friends as easily as Isabelle, with her charisma and easy, careless laugh.

 

He climbed the stairs, dodging clumps of girls who were giggling and shrieking and hugging each other with what looked like enough overenthusiasm to crush several ribcages, and similar groups of boys who were shoving each other good-naturedly and yelling at each other despite the fact that they were only standing about three feet apart.

 

Alec's locker turned out to be on the second floor, near the library in a (thankfully) relatively secluded corner. Slinging off his backpack, he glanced at his schedule again and began to take out the things he wouldn't need until after lunch. His bag was ridiculously heavy with the weight of all his school supplies, along with three novels for personal reading. Jace had made fun of him for bringing so many books with him, but Alec argued that he didn't know what he would want to read at any given time, so it was necessary to carry around every book he was currently reading, just to be safe. He did, however, spare a moment to think that really, eighth graders should probably not have to carry around this much stuff with them already; if this was what his bag weighed in middle school, what would high school be like?— before he went back to organizing his binders so that they wouldn't all collapse on top of each other. He had once made the mistake of standing next to Isabelle when she opened her locker, resulting in a bruised toe from where her history textbook had fallen out and crushed it. (She called it organized chaos. He called it a public safety hazard.)

 

Once he was done, Alec took a roll of tape out of his bag and taped his schedule to the door, having already pretty much memorized everything he needed to know. He checked the nearest wall clock. There were still fifteen minutes left before the the start of homeroom, and he didn't have anything else to do. There were no friends he needed to catch up with, or anyone else who he'd want to talk to. He could try to find Izzy or Jace, he supposed, but he didn't have any idea where they'd be, and besides, even if he did find them, he'd just end up awkwardly standing behind them while they chatted to other people until the bell rang. He was just considering maybe reading in the library until he had to go (after all, it _was_ right there, and the librarian, Luke, was nice) but before he could start walking, a trio of boys passed by. Alec dared to hope that they would just ignore him and keep going, but one of them turned his head and caught sight of Alec before he could flee.

 

Alec's shoulders tensed as their gazes all fell on him like a pack of ravenous hyenas, and he sighed, bracing himself for what was inevitably going to happen. He knew these boys, and he also knew exactly what they thought of him.

 

The one who had seen him first, the unofficial leader of their group, sauntered over to him with a crooked grin on his face. "Lightwood," he smirked. "Hey. How've you been, man? Have a good summer? Meet any other freaks like you?"

 

The other two were wearing the same anticipatory expression now. " _Kiss_ anyone?" one of them asked.

 

The first one looked over at him with raised eyebrows. "Dunno," he said. "You think even another fag would want to kiss  _him_? Freak," he reiterated, turning back to Alec. "You're disgusting. People like you shouldn't be allowed out in public with other normal people." He spat, a glob of saliva striking the metal of the locker door right next Alec's head. If nothing else could be said for him, he had good aim.

 

Alec wasn't sure what to do. It wasn't that these boys scared him, or that he wanted to just let them insult him until they got bored and went away, but he never knew how to respond in these kinds of situations. Should he walk away and try to avoid confrontation? Say something witty and sarcastic in retaliation? Punch them? Tell a teacher about it? He was still deliberating how to reply to them, but the first boy interrupted his train of thought by pushing him back against the lockers and hissing, "Go screw other faggots somewhere where the rest of us can't see you. Filthy bastard."

 

Alec instinctively pushed the other boy off of him and was seriously considering the punching-them option when an authoritative voice he didn't recognize rang out across the hallway. "Hey!"

 

Alec's first thought was that a teacher had come to break up the fight and was suddenly glad that he hadn't punched anyone yet, but upon glancing around the boy who had pinned him to the lockers, he saw that it wasn't an adult at all, but a girl about his own age.

 

She had long platinum-blond hair that hung down to the small of her back, clear, pale skin, delicately boned features, and beautiful green eyes that were accented by the light eyeliner and mascara she had on. She was wearing makeup, though unlike every other middle school girl Alec had ever seen wearing makeup, on her it didn't look fake, like she was trying too hard to impress and had ended up with a caked mask of paint covering her face. Instead, on this girl it looked sophisticated, like she had been wearing it for years and knew exactly what she was doing. She had on bright red lipstick that matched her impeccable blood-toned nail polish, and was wearing a loose, flowy white blouse that was tucked into the waist of a black skirt that hung to her knees. Over that, she had on a red leather jacket, and her feet clad in beige sandals with a slight wedge heel. She was walking towards them with long, purposeful strides in a way that clearly implied she was not to be messed with. She was quite possibly the classiest girl Alec had ever seen, and she looked more like she belonged in university, earning a PhD in something involving fashion and badassery, than walking down the flourescently lit hallway of a public middle school.

 

She marched up to them without preamble. "Hey," she repeated without a shred of nervousness in her voice. "What the hell are you doing?"

 

Alec's tormentor sneered at her. "Just telling this fag to get out of this school and go fuck boys somewhere else, where everyone else's decent eyes don't have to see it. You new?"

 

She raised one eyebrow, clearly unimpressed. "Yeah, I am, but I don't really get what that has to do with you being a jackass for no apparent reason."

 

He scoffed. "No reason? You don't think it's gross? Unnatural? I don't need to see his tongue down another guy's throat, thanks."

 

Her eyebrow, impossibly, inched higher. "I'm sure most people don't, but was he actually doing that when you decided to shove him against an aluminum door and hurl filthy, idiotic profanities in his face like a homophobic imbecile?" She turned to Alec, her demeanor changing completely. " _Were_ you actually indecently making out with someone with visible tongue when they decided to do all of that? Because that doesn't mean I agree with these sons of bitches, but it would be pretty gross of you, especially since we're in the middle of a hallway in a middle school and everything."

 

Alec looked at her in utter bemusement, unsure how to respond to this abrupt intervention by an avenging angel in mascara and red leather. "Um, no."

 

"Oh, good. Glad that's cleared up. I would have had more trouble defending you if you had been. Since, you know, I might be more focused on wanting to go puke in a corner." She returned her attention to the other three people in their vicinity, now looking torn between looking confused or hostile. "Look. I realize that as straight white males in today's society, you must have a really hard time and your lives must be really tough, and that _obviously_ necessitates you to mindlessly harass other apparently innocent people who are minding their own business in order to feel masculine and validated. But as any kind of decent person, I am also obligated to tell you pathetic little motherfuckers that you're being idiots and total jackasses, and that this will not get you anywhere in life, despite what you might think. You can bully your way through the educational system and pat yourselves on the back and say you're great, but once you get to the real world, you'll look around and realize you're screwed, because everyone will see you for exactly what you are.  _Moronic, stupid, asinine_   _jerks._ So if you're done fulfilling your reputation as brainless assholes for today, kindly  _fuck off_."

 

"Crazy bitch," one of them muttered under their breath, looking stunned, but they all turned tail and hurried down the hallway as fast as they could without actually running.

 

The girl looked after them with a satisfied expression on her face, them turned back to Alec, who had to keep himself from flinching. She might have just defended him in the most dramatic and badass way he had ever seen, but she was scary, epic monologues or not.

 

He realized that he should probably thank her profusely, maybe including a burnt offering or something, but what he ended up saying was, "Most people wouldn't have done that."

 

She shrugged. "Most people suck. But thankfully, I'm not most people. Although, actually, I'm sorry," she added as an afterthought. "I guess maybe you might not have appreciated what I did just now. I didn't mean to act like you couldn't fight your own battles or something, I just, I saw those guys messing with you and it pissed me off, and it's my first day here and everything, so I'm kind of anxious and I guess I was looking for a fight to blow off some steam." Her gaze was unflinching and her tone was even. She certainly didn't  _act_ like the kind of person who'd be anxious about anything. "So, if I like, stole your thunder, sorry about that."

 

Alec stared at her. He didn't have any idea what to say to that. This girl had something about her that seemed to inspire speechlessness.

 

"Oh, sorry, I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Camille." She frowned. "And I don't usually apologize this much."

 

When Alec still didn't respond, she raised her eyebrows slightly. "And  _you're_...?"

 

"Oh, right! Alec. I'm Alec. Sorry. I din't mean to ignore you, I just, um... wasn't expecting... all that. Nice to meet you. And I don't mind. About you... doing what you just did." He made a weak gesture in a fruitless attempt to encompass everything that had just happened.

 

"Well, nice to meet you too, Alec. Is that short for anything?"

 

"Yeah, Alexander. But only my parents call me that, and I don't really like the name that much."

 

"Just Alec it is, then."

 

They stood in awkward silence for a few more seconds.

 

"Um, I've never met a girl my age whose makeup was as good as yours." Alec rubbed the back of his neck, clumsily attempting to end the uncomfortable moment. "My sister keeps trying it out, but she always looks like the psychotic child of an affair between a raccoon, a drag queen, and a circus clown when she's done. Not that I'd ever tell her that."

 

Camille laughed, a high-pitched yet comfortable sound. "Thanks. Never met a boy who complimented me on my makeup before, so I guess there's a first time for everything." She checked a glittering crimson watch seated on her right wrist that Alec hadn't noticed before. "Oh, shit, it's almost homeroom. Where are you going?"

 

"Room 314."

 

"Damn, I have room 207. I guess, see you around, maybe?"

 

"Yeah, I guess. Um, bye." Alec hoisted his backpack onto his shoulder and turned to leave for the stairwell. He got halfway down the hall before he heard Camille call out behind him.

 

"Hey, Alec!"

 

"He turned back around. "Yeah?"

 

"Can I actually ask you something?"

 

"What?"

 

"A favor." Camille twisted her watch nervously, looking like she was trying to decide something. "See, I wouldn't normally do this, but... like I said, I'm new, and I don't want to put any pressure on you or anything, you can totally say no, but, like, I was wondering if you could sort of be like a stand-in friend for me the first few days, since I don't know anyone yet. Nothing big or anything, just, like, if I could sit with you at lunch and stuff like that. I don't want to be pushy or force you to act like we're BFFs, but it just sucks to be the new girl who everyone is watching and silently judging, and it can soften the blow if they think you've already found someone who doesn't think you're a weirdo and who'll let you hang with them. Makes the transition easier."

 

Alec blinked at her.

 

"I mean, like I said, you absolutely don't have to agree to do that for me," Camille backtracked quickly. "You don't even know me. I could be a total bitch. I get it."

 

"No, that's fine with me, just," Alec tried to explain, "I don't think  _my_ being friends with you will do amazing things for your street cred. I'm not exactly popular. I don't actually  _have_ any friends, myself," he admitted.

 

Camille looked nonchalant about this fact. "I don't really care about that too much, honestly," she said. "Hey, maybe they'll all think that I'm super cool and you just have excellent taste in friends which no one ever knew about, and then we'll both benefit. Just, so long as you wouldn't be opposed to the idea."

 

Alec shrugged. "Yeah, sure. I usually sit towards the back of the cafeteria."

 

Camille grinned. "Why does that not surprise me, even after just a few minutes of knowing you?"

 

Alec shrugged again eloquently.

 

"So, deal?" Camille held out her hand.

 

"Deal." They shook.

 

And that was how Alec Lightwood and Camille Belcourt came to be best friends.


	2. Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is basically a collection of a few scenes of (mostly) important events throughout Alec and Camille's relationship in high school, like Alec's coming out to his parents and when he finds out about Robert cheating on Maryse, and just their dynamic as friends in general. It isn't going to advance the plot much, sorry about that, but we'll probably start progressing towards the actual college part of the story next chapter if I can get my shit together and figure out how I want all of that to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a lot of dialogue this chapter, so sorry if that's not your thing, but I just felt the need to to write conversations to try to develop and show their characters better before we get into the meat of the story.
> 
> For the people who asked if Camille would start to become more like her canon personality once the conflict started— not in this fic, no. There'll be some angst and she might get upset at points, but I personally like her as a nice person in this story, and that's the way she's gonna stay.

Camille Belcourt held an interesting position in the social hierarchy of her high school.

 

She could easily have been popular, with her good looks, commanding presence, easy personality, and sophisticated sense of style, but she chose not to spend time within that particular social circle. In fact, she had thrown away the chance on her very first day of eighth grade, when she hesitantly asked the black-haired boy she had defended in the hallway to act like they were friends with each other.

 

He had looked startled, but agreed, and so she had ended up sitting unnoticed with him at his table in the back of the cafeteria for that week. And the next week after that. And the next one after that.

 

What started as a few casual greetings in the hallways and somewhat awkward lunches spent mostly in silence started to morph into an actual friendship as she and Alec Lightwood gradually began to acclimate to each other, talking more frequently at their otherwise empty lunch table and seeking each other out before homeroom and in between classes. Camille began to learn that behind his reserved exterior, Alec was actually incredibly smart, with thoughtful insights and a sarcastic sense of humor, most likely honed from his relationship with his three siblings, which seemed to be based on a mix of exasperation and fondness.

 

His siblings, Camille discovered, (or at least the two of them who were in middle school. Alec's youngest brother, Max, was only four) were pretty popular themselves. Isabelle had an irresistible personality that naturally drew a crowd, and Jace's combination of carelessness and devilish allure had girls and boys alike flocking to him in an attempt to catch his attention. It was obvious that Alec loved them both to pieces and Camille found herself liking them both on the occasions when they came to sit with her and Alec at lunch, unable to resist their charms. Soon she and Isabelle were going on trips to the mall most Saturdays and she and Jace would trade joking comments whenever she came over to hang out at the Lightwoods' house, which, it turned out, was only a few blocks away from her own. 

 

But it was still Alec that she came to school to see.

 

Maybe because neither of them had any other friends, or maybe because of Camille's fierce protectiveness of Alec that first morning, or maybe just because opposites attract, by October the two were virtually inseparable. It was true that they were an unlikely pairing— Camille with her confidence and style and brash comments and Alec with his books and his quiet ability to fade into the background, but they had always inexplicably clicked in a way that no one could quite figure out.

 

Most people assumed, when they saw them, that they were dating, and the first few weeks of every school year, new students would walk up to them and comment on what a cute couple they were, which always prompted a laugh from Camille and a blush from Alec. Camille didn't mind the assumptions much and would usually correct the whoever had made the mistake with a "It's fine, most people think so at first", but she knew that Alec still found the idea a little weird every time someone brought it up, especially since he had been out to the school in general for years, due to an unfortunate mistake in seventh grade.

 

(Camille had asked him about that a little while after they met. The slurs the boys in the hallway had hurled at him had seemed like pointed barbs, not the random insults of stupid bullies who liked to go around calling people "fag" for no reason, and she didn't know of many people who would voluntarily confirm themselves as gay in a setting as brutal as middle school. Alec had explained that he had unintentionally come out one afternoon when he was talking to Jace and Izzy privately about his sexuality and someone happened to pass by and overhear their conversation. The news was all over the school in a few days. While most people didn't take enough interest in him to care, he said, there were some, like the boys who had accosted him by his locker, who went out of their way to be cruel about it. But mostly he got left alone.)

 

The other students who had been at school in previous years knew that their attachment each other was purely platonic, but Camille still sometimes had people come up to her and ask why she hung out with a loser like Alec Lightwood if she could have joined the popular clique instead. She always replied by informing them exactly where they could shove their opinions, coupled with a few choice expletives. As far as she was concerned, she could be friends with whomever the hell she wanted, and it was none of their damn business.

 

Still, despite Camille's friendship with Alec, she was still generally well liked throughout their grade. Most people admired her and she tended to get along with the kids who didn't piss her off (and the ones that did were afraid of her, which she enjoyed immensely.)

 

So that was how their relationship went, all the way from middle school through their senior year of high school. Camille and Alec. Alec and Camille. It was exactly the way they both liked it.

 

{***}

 

** Senior Year (High School), 2017 **

"So the myths they gave us for history were seriously fucked up," Camille stated without preamble as soon as she dropped into her regular seat beside Alec, snatching one of his french fries and dipping it in a paper cup of ketchup.

 

"Mm-hmm," he replied, not looking up from the school library's copy of  _Crooked Kingdom_.

 

"I mean, I knew ancient cultures had weird ideas about families and relationships and everything, but some of those? Can you believe they told those to their  _kids_? Like, imagine going to bed and having your parents tell you a story like, 'So then the dude split himself in half and raped the female half of himself over and over again in different forms and that's how all the different animals were created, 'kay, good night, sleep well!' There were multiple ones in there that were rape myths. _Rape myths_ , Alec. I mean, what kind of convoluted imagination would you have to have to come up with that story as the tale of creation? It's nuts." She chewed the french fry as she spoke.

 

"Mm-hmm."

 

"And they were all so patriarchal, too. Like, almost all of them were centered around boys. And most of the women in them got taken advantage of. How did people manage to be sexist even back when they had to spend all their energy on just surviving? And eventually they just all blurred into each other because it was basically the same themes being repeated with different details. I just skipped taking notes on the Greek creation story entirely, since I already knew it anyway." She was gesticulating rather wildly with her fork, and Alec spared a glance up from his book.

 

"Cam, you're you realize going to kill someone with that thing," he said, gesturing towards the plastic utensil.

 

She paused in her rant to look him in the eye. "Have you even been listening to anything I've been saying since I sat down?"

 

"I've been pretending to, does that count?"

 

"No, it most certainly does not," Camille said with an affronted expression. She craned her neck to look at the title of the novel in his hands, then sat back up with an even more offended look on her face. "You ignored me for  _Crooked Kingdom_? Seriously? How many times have you read that before? You know what happens already! I can't believe you refused to pay attention to my highly interesting and intellectual opinions on our class assignments just to read a book you've read a million times before."

 

"To be fair," Alec argued in a mild tone, placing the book down on the table next to their plates of questionable cafeteria food, "I also know what happens every time you go off on a rant about whatever's currently annoying you, so either way I'm not missing out on anything I haven't seen before. And I've only read the Six of Crows duology three times, so stop exaggerating," he added.

 

Camille huffed at him in mock affront and crossed her arms. "Maybe I should just ditch you and go find another friend who'll actually appreciate my incredible wisdom, unlike  _some people_. I can't believe you. All these years of camaraderie and talking crap about the jocks and popular chicks, and now you just go and cheat on me with Leigh Bardugo. That's betrayal, right there."

 

Alec rolled his eyes. "I take it back."

 

"Sorry, it's too late to win me back. I've already moved on."

 

"No, not about that. I mean I should have known better than to tell you to stop exaggerating, I already knew it was a wishful impossibility."

 

Camille gasped in indignation and raised a hand to swat him on the shoulder, but just then Isabelle appeared, with Jace in tow.

 

"Hey, guys," Izzy said breezily, gracefully flopping into a chair opposite them and snaring a fry from Alec's tray. "What are you two bickering about this time?"

 

Camille quickly explained the situation to her as Jace took a seat next to Isabelle. " _I_ was trying to instigate an extremely scintillating conversation with Alec about our history reading, but my lovely BFF here chose to ignore me in favor of his love affair with _Six of Crows_ —"

 

" _Crooked Kingdom_ ," Alec corrected her.

 

"Whatever." Camille waved the comment aside, leaning closer to Isabelle to continue her animated narration. "So I said that he had already read that book a million times and should be paying attention to  _me_ , since I was obviously the more interesting at hand, and then he had the audacity to go and insult me by saying that he had heard me rant so many times that he knew how _that_  plot went, too, and told me to stop being a diva. So  _I_ said I would dump him and go find a different friend who appreciated me more, and then  _he_ said that he should have known better than to tell me to stop being dramatic. I was just about to give him his comeuppance when you guys showed up."

 

Alec nodded in confirmation. "That pretty much sums it up."

 

"Well, I agree with both of you," Isabelle said, munching on another french fry. "It wouldn't kill you to verbally communicate with people every now and then, Alec."

 

Camille nodded in satisfaction.

 

"And Cammie, you are a diva, and Alec should have realized by now that there's nothing he can do about it," Izzy continued.

 

Jace snorted.

 

"Why is everyone against me today?" Camille inquired of no one in particular.

 

"Dunno," Jace replied. "It is weird. usually we'd be teaming up with you against Alec." Looking over at their plates of food, he asked, "And what lovely selection of culinary delights have the cafeteria workers constructed today? Besides fries, of course," he added, taking one from Alec's grease-spotted paper basket.

 

"Simon said they tried to stir-fry pizza," Isabelle reported glumly.

 

"They did?" Camille did a quick once over of her food, which she had previously been too busy talking to notice before. "Oh my god, I think they  _did_ ," she said, poking around a lump of some unidentifiable substance with her fork. "Ugh."

 

Jace sighed morosely. "Maybe I'll just try to find an apple that isn't bruised or something. We should really just start bringing our own lunches." He got up from the table.

 

Alec zoned out of the conversation, going back to his book as Izzy and Camille chatted together. When he next looked up, it was when Jace came back to the table holding an apple and cup of yogurt, and the conversation had somehow shifted to Demi Lovato.

 

"Okay, I know it's a clearly sexual song, but like, 'Cool For The Summer' still beats 'Really Don't Care'," Camille was saying earnestly to Isabelle.

 

"Ugh, no. That song is so overrated. Give me songs where she's being sassy instead of sexy any day."

 

"But the background effects are so much more basic on that one," Camille argued.

 

"If it's the background effects you're going for, 'Confident' is better than both of those," Jace mumbled around a mouthful of yogurt.

 

Camille scoffed. "Talk about overrated. People act like it's the only song on the album."

 

"Agreed," said Izzy. They grinned at each other and did a fist bump.

 

Alec rolled his eyes. "You're all wrong. 'For The Love Of A Daughter' is clearly her best song, but it doesn't matter, because Taylor beats Demi by a million miles anyway."

 

The others all sighed in exasperation. "Not this again," complained Isabelle. "Just because you like Taylor Swift better than Demi Lovato—"

 

"Come on, her lyrics are way better! They have depth, whereas Lovato's songs are usually just a bunch of catchy words thrown together. Like 'Made In The USA', those lyrics don't even make any sense. She sounds fine, but her songs don't have any meaning."

 

"They're pop songs, Alec, they're not supposed to uncover the secrets of the universe!" Izzy cried, throwing up her hands in exasperation.

 

"Yeah," Camille agreed. "And besides, all that reputation and 'new Taylor' stuff she's going through now is ridiculous. It's like she missed the temporary thirteen-year-old emo phase, and now she's trying to make up for it at twenty-eight. Maybe she used to be a good artist, but now she's just trying too hard to act like a vindictive, overdramatic drama queen, and it's showing."

 

"She's still good!" Alec defended. "Sure, she was a lot better back when she was still 'old Taylor', but her music isn't worse, she's just changed styles."

 

"Pffft," Camille said. "You just don't want admit that while Demi's got attitude, all Taylor's ever gonna be—" she leaned forward to emphasize her point— "is  _mean_."

 

Isabelle grinned and gave Camille a high-five. "Nice one." They both simultaneously reached over to Alec's lunch tray.

 

"For the love of God, both of you get your own damn fries!" Alec exclaimed in exasperation.

 

"Fine," Isabelle said with a sniff. "You didn't have to yell at us. C'mon, Cammie." They both laughed their light, carefree laughs and got up, sauntering over to the lunch line together. Alec shook his head at their retreating backs.

 

{***}

 

**Junior Year (High School), March 2016**

"Hey, Dad?" Camille's yell echoed through the house as she hovered at the front door.

 

"Yes?" the resounding reply came from the kitchen.

 

"I'm going over to the Lightwoods', is that okay?"

 

"Sure, just be back by..." she waited, presumably for him to check the clock in the kitchen. "7:30."

 

She checked her watch. It was 5:15, she had plenty of time. "'Kay, Bye."

 

"Love you!"

 

"Love you, too!"

 

She shut the door and stepped outside. It was overcast, but there was only supposed to be a 30% chance of rain. As Camille walked down the street, she ruminated that most high schoolers would not be caught dead casually telling their fathers that they loved them. She supposed she should probably hate her dad for whatever reason teenagers were usually supposed to hate their parents and spend all her time in her room feeling petulant and misunderstood, but she never had. Well, she did spend the majority of her time in her room, or Alec's, depending on whose house they were hanging out at, but she was usually either doing homework or playing Risk on her phone in a futile attempt to beat Max's high score in the ongoing competition she had with the Lightwood siblings.

 

She guessed that it was because her dad had been the only family she could ever remember having. Ever since her mother had left when she was a toddler, it had just been the two of them living together, and they had always been close because of it. You couldn't afford to hate one of the only parental figures in your life if you didn't have anyone else to fall back on.

 

Though  _that_ wasn't strictly true, either. She had Alec, and Izzy, Jace, and Max, and, to some extent, their parents. Robert and Maryse weren't exactly the heart-to-heart touchy-feely kind of parents, and they were a somewhat old-fashioned in a few of their beliefs, but they did care about their children, and she was pretty sure they cared about her, too, since she and Alec had practically been attached at the hip since middle school. Honestly, she lived as much at his house as at her own.

 

She turned a corner onto the Lightwoods' street, and broke into a jog, pushing thoughts of parents out of her head, ending up at their driveway in no time. 2206 was a large house, with a gray stone exterior and a large bay window on the front that gave it the beautiful, solemn look of older decades. A weeping willow stood out front, boughs hanging low to the ground. On the inside, Camille knew, the whole thing had been totally renovated, updated to stainless steel appliances and marble countertops. Fortunately, though, the contractors who had done the work also appeared to have endeavored to keep most of the features that gave the house its charm, so the interior still looked lovely despite the modern changes.

 

She could hear the sound of Alec and Jace yelling to each other coming from the backyard as she walked up the driveway, so she veered her course to the side, bypassing the front door entirely and opening the gate that lead to the back of the house, latching it behind her and striding purposefully toward the sounds of their voices.

 

***

 

Alec looked over from Jace when he heard the sound of the gate opening. A few seconds later, Camille rounded the corner of the house.

 

"Hey guys," she said, climbing up onto the back deck and letting her backpack drop to the ground with a heavy thud. "What's up?"

 

She was wearing what she usually changed into after school— a zip-up hoodie with the sleeves cut off and a pair of sweatpants, and her blond hair was held up in a messy bun. It made a stark contrast from the skinny jeans, silk tank top, and elaborate french braid design she had been wearing earlier that day, but she somehow managed to always look perfectly at home in any article of clothing she chose to wear. Alec had pointed out to her, multiple times, that there was no point going home to change into comfortable clothes if you could just wear something comfortable all day and have that be the end of it, but Camille always shook her head and sighed at him in a 'What are we going to do with you?' manner whenever he brought it up, so he had eventually accepted it as a losing battle.

 

"Playing catch and discussing whether or not it would be considered murder if Iz's cooking ever accidentally killed anyone," Jace replied, gesturing to show the football he had in his left hand. "Wanna join?"

 

"Sure," Camille replied, jumping down from the deck and walking over to them. "It would be manslaughter, wouldn't it?" she asked, taking up a position off to the side, to the right of Jace and the left of Alec, creating a triangular formation. "If it were unintentional."

 

"But no one would be able to know for  _sure_ that it was unintentional," Jace pointed out, in a tone that suggested he had already made this argument to Alec. "So she would probably get sentenced for murder."

 

"But how would someone end up getting poisoned in the first place? Anyone who knows her would  _know_ not to eat anything she made, and why would she be cooking for anyone she didn't know that well?" Alec asked, catching the football as Jace threw it to him.

 

"Maybe a date?" Camille suggested. Alec threw to her and she had to jump slightly to catch the ball. That was what she got for having such a tall friend, she supposed.

 

"Izzy wouldn't do anything that personal for a beginning date, and she never has more than a few in a row since commitment isn't really her thing," remarked Jace.

 

"Um, excuse you." Isabelle, who had suddenly appeared on the back steps, glared down at her brother. "I _know_ I didn't just hear you slandering your wonderful favorite sister. You would never do such a thing. If only because you're too chicken."

 

She crossed the deck and descended into the yard. "And I could commit if I wanted to. I've just never dated anyone I liked enough." She gestured for Camille toss to her. "Cammie, over here."

 

Camille passed the football to Isabelle and Jace whistled. "Where'd you learn to throw a football that well? You've got a great spiral."

 

Camille tossed her hair and grinned. "Thanks. Remember when I was dating that guy on the team earlier this year?" They nodded. "Well since he had practice most days after school I ended up spending a lot of my time waiting around the field for him to finish up— _so_ boring, just watching them do drills and knock each other over; it's the main reason I dumped him— anyways, I spent a lot of time waiting, and I would finish my homework and then not have anything else to do, so I ended up convincing some of the boys to teach me how to throw when they weren't playing." Her grin widened. "I can be  _very_ persuasive."

 

 

Jace placed a hand over his heart. "God help the poor fool who falls prey to your feminine wiles."

 

Camille stuck her tongue out at him and continued. "So I ended up just throwing an extra ball around most of the time, until we broke up and then I didn't have to a reason to hang around the football pitch anymore. Nice to see my skills haven't suffered. Of course, those aren't the  _only_ skills that I learned while I was dating him—"

 

"You can stop now," Alec interrupted her quickly, before she could make any innuendoes involving balls.

 

Camille laughed and caught the football as Jace threw it to her.

 

"That guy sucked," Alec commented as Camille threw to Izzy. "I never got why you were dating him."

 

"No reason, really. Just an experiment to see if I'd like him and have some fun, not anything serious."

 

"But why would you date someone in the first place if you didn't at least intend to be serious about them?" Alec asked. It was something he had accepted but never really understood about Camille: she didn't seem to see romantic relationships as serious commitments or especially important, dating casually and going through partners quickly, like she was ordering boys at a fast food restaurant. He'd couldn't remember anyone that she had ever been with for longer than a few months. His own sister was the same way.

 

"Because not everyone is as careful with their feelings as you are, Alec," Isabelle explained patiently. "You've never been with somebody because you have high standards for people and wouldn't consider dating anyone unless you felt a strong emotional attachment to them already. Cammie and aren't as selective because we don't usually go into relationships with the expectation that it'll be a long-lasting arrangement. We're usually just looking for a light thing, nothing with too many strings attached.

 

"That's not to say that we won't ever meet guys who we end up in long-term committed relationships with," she continued, "but right now it's not a big deal to us if we aren't serious about the people we date."

 

"Right," Camille agreed. "Honestly, I mostly just went out with the dude because he was hot. I don't even remember what his name was."

 

"I think it was Drake or something," said Alec.

 

Camille shrugged. "Maybe. Whatever." Then her expression shifted to curiosity, and she asked, "Would you ever want a boyfriend?"

 

Alec blinked and fumbled Izzy's pass to him, thrown off by the sudden change in subject. "Um... I..." He picked up the ball and turned it over in his hands. "I dunno. I mean yeah, it'd be nice, but I've just... never considered it? I mean, I've seen guys I thought were attractive, but... never met anyone that I was genuinely interested in, I guess."

 

Camille nodded. "That's fine," she said. "It's honestly probably safer to be selective with that kind of stuff. You're less likely to get into toxic situations if you wait for someone you really love. Still, though..." she wiggled her eyebrows. "If you ever wanted me and Izzy to set you up with anyone, we'd be more than happy."

 

"We have a list," Isabelle added, and Camille shot her a look.

 

"You weren't supposed to mention that part."

 

Alec looked skywards and shook his head, though not without fondness. "I should have known better than to expect you two to stay out of my love life."

 

"You know we only have your best interests at heart."

 

He smiled at that. "Yeah. I do know."

 

{***}

 

**Junior Year (High School), May 2016**

It was raining hard at a little past 9 o'clock on a Tuesday night when the Belcourt's doorbell rang. Camille's dad, who was a professor at a college in Philadelphia almost an hour's drive away and usually commuted via train frequently ended up staying late at work, so she was the only one in the house.

 

She got up from her position on the couch where she had been doing her physics homework in front of reruns of Say Yes To the Dress and went to answer it, wondering who would be there at this time of night in this weather, and mentally weighing the likelihood of scenarios where a rapist or serial killer was standing on the stoop when she opened the door and she was never heard from again. (So she had a somewhat overactive imagination, sue her.) Or, God forbid, it could be a particularly persistent salesperson who refused to leave despite ample hints.

 

Instead, she opened the door to find Alec, in a gray hooded sweatshirt and jeans that must have been a minimum ten years old, soaking wet and looking a little lost, like he didn't know how he had ended up there or why he had come in the first place.

 

"Alec?" she asked in concern, opening the door wider. They had been friends long enough for her to be able to tell that something had clearly happened. He would have at least called before coming over, otherwise. "What's wrong? What are you doing here?"

 

He focused his gaze on her and blinked, shaking his head slightly and scattering water droplets. "Cam? I'm sorry... I didn't mean to end up at your house... I needed to go for a walk, and I guess I was on autopilot."

 

"A walk? In  _this_?" She gestured to the torrent outside. "Did something happen? Are you okay?"

 

"Yeah, I'm..." Alec ran his fingers through his dripping hair and sighed. "Is it okay if I come in?"

 

"Oh, yeah, of course," Camille said hurriedly, and stepped aside, ushering him in. "Sorry I didn't offer."

 

"It's fine," said Alec, stepping over the threshold into the entryway of the house.

 

Camille shut the door and turned to face him. "What's going on, Alec? Why are you showing up at my house at 9 P.M.?"

 

"I... um..." he paused, and then seemed to gather enough resolve to finish his sentence. "I came out to my parents."

 

"Oh my God," Camille said eloquently. She wasn't sure exactly how to process the news. Alec had been aware of his own sexual orientation for years, but because of his parents' old-fashioned views on homosexuality, he had never told them anything, so that Camille had eventually grown used to it being kept a secret from them. She had known, of course, that Alec would most likely come out to Maryse and Robert at some point in his life, but she had sort of just subconsciously stopped waiting for it to happen. Suddenly being informed that her best friend was no longer in the closet, without any warning, seemed surreal, more like a fever dream than reality. Regaining speech, she launched into a barrage of questions. "How did they react? Are they okay with it? Did they even believe you when you told them? They at least believed you, right? They didn't do that thing where they brush you off and say 'No, you're not', did they?"

 

Suddenly struck with a thought, looking at him dripping rainwater on the doormat, she gasped. "They didn't kick you out, did they? Is that why you're here? Because your parents kicked you out? Oh God, Alec—"

 

He shook his head and cut her off, seeming to pull himself together as Camille started to freak out. "No, they didn't kick me out. I think they would have let me take some of my stuff, at least. But... they didn't take it great, either. I don't really know. I think they just need some time right now to process the idea. And I needed some space, too. That's why I took a walk.

 

"It's weird... I was so used to hiding it from Mom and Dad that now it feels wrong for them to know somehow. Like, it was my secret, and now it's not a secret any more, and that's weird. It feels almost like I lost something, even though I know it's better that they know. Does that even make any sense?"

 

"Yeah," Camille assured him, though it didn't really. She suddenly realized that Alec was still drenched, and started, realizing how uncomfortable he must be. "Um, do you want to go sit in the living room? I was just doing my homework— you can move my stuff over— I'll just, um, go get you a towel real quick."

 

Alec nodded and went over to the living room, shifting some textbooks and loose pieces of paper so that he could take a seat, while Camille darted upstairs to the linen closet.

 

She ran back down in with a towel in hand, as well as a pair of her father's shorts and one of his t-shirts, to find Alec staring at the TV screen bemusedly. "What are you watching?" he asked as she came over and settled beside him, handing over the towel.

 

"Say Yes To the Dress. I needed some amusement while I did physics, it bores me to hell. I got you some of my dad's clothes to change into, too. They shirt might be a little tight on you, but I figured it was better than any of my clothes."

 

Alec snorted, toweling his hair dry. "You always watch the crappiest shows, Cam. Thanks for the clothes. I hadn't really noticed how wet I was until you mentioned it."

 

"No problem. My dad won't mind. By the way, do your parents know where you are?"

 

"Oh shit, no. I forgot to tell them. I should probably send them a text or something, hold on. Thanks for reminding me." Alec reached into his pocket and came up empty-handed. "Shit! I left it at home. Can you text Izzy to tell her to tell Mom and Dad that I'm at your place?"

 

"Sure, one sec," Camille replied, and picked her phone up from where it had been lying on the coffee table. She opened her contacts and found Izzy's name in favorites, right under Alec's, sending her a quick message.

 

**From: Camille**

**To: MostFabLightwood <3**

**9:16 pm**

_Alec is over at my place. He's fine tho, dont worry_

 

Camille pocketed her phone. "Okay, I told her. Do you think you'll have to go back soon?"

 

"Dunno," replied Alec, leaning back into the couch cushions and closing his eyes. "If it's okay, I'd rather spend the night here, but I don't know if my parents will let me."

 

Camille's phone buzzed. She pulled it out of her pocket to check Isabelle's reply text.

 

**From: MostFabLightwood <3**

**To: Camille**

**9:17 pm**

_Oh thank god. Mom and dad were freaking out._

 

 

"Do you want me to ask if you can stay over?" Camille asked.

 

"Yeah, that'd be great, thanks."

 

**From: Camille**

**To: MostFabLightwood <3**

**9:17 pm**

_Alec wants to know if he can stay at my house tonight. Can u ask for him? Thnx_

 

A second later, a reply pinged.

 

**From: MostFabLightwood <3**

**To: Camille**

**9:18 pm**

_sure_

 

Camille put away her phone and turned to face her friend. "So... how did you end up telling them?"

 

Alec suddenly looked embarrassed, aiming his gaze anywhere but Camille. He coughed. "Um... actually... well, I guess it's a little funny, really, but, um, it's also kind of awkward..."

 

She raised an eyebrow. "Well now you've got to tell me."

 

Alec shifted in his seat. "So you know how we did our homework together here on Friday?"

 

"Of course. We've only been hanging out at each other's houses since middle school."

 

"Yeah, right, that's what I thought when they brought it up. I didn't know why they were mentioning something like that, when we'd been doing the same thing for years. Anyway, they brought it up, like I said, and they kept mentioning me and you and it was weird, like they were trying to be coy about something, and I couldn't figure out what they were getting at, so I eventually just asked them outright, and... um..." He trailed off again, looking acutely uncomfortable.

 

"What'd they say?" Camille prompted, now curious as to what could make her best friend blush so much.

 

"They sort of asked me if we were sleeping together."

 

Camille clapped a hand over her mouth to cover her unexpected shout of laughter. "Sorry. It's just... that idea is so wrong in so many ways it's hilarious. So?" she asked, leaning forwards. "What'd you say to them?"

 

"I told them we weren't, but they didn't seem to believe me and they kept telling me I could tell them anything and they'd be okay with it, and so I just kind of snapped and said I was gay, and then the rest is kind of a blur and I ended up here."

 

"Well," Camille laughed breathlessly. "That's one hell of a way to come out."

 

Alec smiled sheepishly and ran his hand through his hair again. "Yeah, I guess."

 

Camille's phone buzzed again, breaking the moment. She opened her newest text from Izzy.

 

**From: MostFabLightwood <3**

**To: Camille**

**9:23 pm**

_they say it's okay so long as you check with ur dad and he's okay with it, but to tell alec they want to talk to him tmrrw_

 

 

"Izzy says you're allowed to stay but your parents still want to talk tomorrow."

 

Alec leaned back. "Figures, but I guess there wasn't really any avoiding that. Will your dad be okay with me staying over?"

 

"Yeah, he'll be fine with it. It's not like you haven't had sleepovers here before. You wanna watch a movie? I can make us popcorn."

 

Alec motioned to the books and papers strewn across the couch and coffee table. "Don't you have homework to do?"

 

Camille waved her hand. "My homework can survive not getting done for once. This is more important. What are you in the mood for?"

 

Alec considered for a moment. "Freaky Friday."

 

"Okay." Camille smiled and got up. "We've got the DVD somewhere in the cupboard under the TV, I think. I'll go check our popcorn status."

 

{***}

 

**June, Summer 2016**

It was only a month later when Camille's phone rang at 10:11 P.M., alerting her that she had a call from Alec. She paused the episode of Once Upon A Time she had been lying on her bed watching on her laptop and picked her phone off the bedside table, answering on the second ring. "Hey, what's up?"

 

"Cam." Alec's voice on the other end sounded tired and resigned. "Do you have time to talk right now?"

 

"Sure," she answered, shutting her computer. "What is it?"

 

"It's... I don't honestly know how to start."

 

"Whoa, hey." She sat up nervously. This sounded serious. Again. "The last time you sounded like that when we were talking, you ended up dropping a pretty huge bombshell on me. Is this gonna be like that?"

 

Alec laughed humorlessly. "Yeah, probably. Sorry to call you whenever something happens to me. It's not really your problem to deal with, I realize, but I just really,  _really_ need to talk to someone right now or I think I might combust."

 

She was really getting anxious now. "You know you can tell me anything. It's fine, I don't mind. But you're seriously making me nervous, Alec. What is it?"

 

He was silent for a second. Then: "Dad's been cheating on Mom."

 

Camille was stunned into silence. What did you say to someone when they told you something like that? _I'm sorry_? That didn't cut it, not by a long shot. Could she curse, or would that be insensitive? She had no idea how to respond. Robert and Maryse Lightwood had never seemed especially in love with each other, or at least not in a display-of-PDA kind of way, but never in a million years would she have pegged Robert as the kind of man to have an affair. He had always been reserved and severe, although maybe he had sometimes given off an air of being a little unsatisfied with his life if she stopped to think about it. But an affair? She still wouldn't have predicted it.

 

Finally she spoke. "You always save the really groundbreaking stuff for night, huh?"

 

"I guess so." His voice was emotionless. They were both silent.

 

"How's long?"

 

"Three years."

 

She sucked in a breath. Three years. Damn.

 

"How's your mom reacting?"

 

Alec's laugh was bitter this time. "Oh, she already knew. So did Izzy. Apparently it wasn't worth Jace and me knowing up until now."

 

" _What?_ "

 

"Yeah. Mom knew from the beginning, and I guess at some point she broke and just heaped it all on Isabelle, then told her not to tell anyone else. So my little sister has been living with this since she was thirteen and she hasn't been able to tell anyone."

 

"Oh my God. Izzy. What must that have been like for her?"

 

"I don't know," Alec answered honestly. "She says it was fine and that she's okay, that I shouldn't feel bad, but how can I  _not_ , Cam? She's my baby sister. I should have known. I should have been there for her, not let her carry that around by herself."

 

"You couldn't have known."

 

"But I could've!" Alec sounded really agitated now, and Camille could picture him waving his hands around wildly. "I should have guessed. I mean, Mom and Dad were always distant with each other. They seemed more like business associates or something than husband and wife. And there would be these times I would catch Mom staring at her wedding ring with a weird expression on her face and I'd ask her what was wrong, and she'd say she was just getting caught up in memories, and I'd believe her! I never stopped to  _think_." He sounded so defeated and guilty that Camille wanted to run to his house right then and give him a hug and tell him it wasn't his fault.

 

Instead she settled for saying it over the phone. "Listen, Alec. I know you feel guilty, because I know you, and you're the kind of person who wants to be able to help everybody they love, and you weren't able to do that this time. But _it's not your fault_. There wasn't anything you could have done. Your dad cheated on Maryse, not you. And your mom was the one who told Izzy not to tell anyone else about it, not you. You didn't consider that your dad might be cheating on your mom because it's not the kind of thing anyone expects to happen. So stop beating yourself up over it. You're not a bad brother because your parents have made mistakes."

 

Alec breathed out slowly, then said quietly, "Yeah. Yeah, I know you're right. You usually are. I just feel so useless right now, and..." he sighed. "Thanks, Cam. For talking to me about it. And, you know, for just... being my friend in general. Sometimes, when we were first becoming friends, I would wake up and for a second, I wouldn't remember that I had you, and then I would remember, and it was the best feeling in the world. You're the best friend I've ever had, you know."

 

Camille's vision went slightly blurry, and she blinked hard a couple times. "Shut up, you idiot," she whispered in a watery voice, pouring all the love she had for her friend into the words. "You're the better friend. And I'm not going anywhere. Not then, not now, not ever. You should know that."

 

{***}

 

**Senior Year (High School), 2017**

About a weeks after the argument about creation myths and Demi Lovato, Camille ran up to Alec in the cafeteria shrieking, her long silky hair (which she was wearing loose that day) streaming behind her like a banner. She reached their table and skidded to a stop, not pausing to take a breath before beginning to squeal so loudly Alec was pretty sure the whole school could hear her. "ALECALECALECALEC GUESS WHAT?  _I GOT IN!_ I GOT IN, ALEC! I DID IT! OHMYGOD, OHMYGOD, OHMYGOD—"

 

Alec quickly tried to silence her before the entire lunch room noticed them. "People are staring at us, Cam. What is it? What did you get in to?"

 

" _Alicante_ , dummy!" she screamed giddily, jumping up and down like a child on Christmas morning. "I just got my letter of acceptance from them!"

 

At that, his face broke into a grin, too. "No kidding? That's great! Congratulations!"

 

"I know!" Camille exclaimed, thankfully in a slightly quieter voice that probably only reached the people sitting within a ten foot radius of their table. "I was so worried they would reject me! I mean, obviously it was a given that they'd accept _you_ ,since you're a genius and everything and your family practically paid for half the campus, but I thought for sure I wouldn't be good enough to get in. Like, my grades are  _decent_ , but nowhere near as good as yours, and I kept worrying that the teachers who wrote my letters of recommendation secretly said terrible things about me, even though I know they aren't actually allowed to do that, but—" she went on for a few minutes, happily chattering to Alec while he smiled and nodded along, before finally ending with, "—and now we'll get to go to the same college and I won't have to miss you and be lonely and make a whole new bunch of friends because we'll be together!" stopping to take a breath for what looked like the first time until she had entered the room.

 

She sat down, then suddenly straightened up with a worried expression crowning her beautiful (and now quite flushed) features. "You  _are_ going to go to Alicante, right? I mean, I know your parents are really big on you going there and you want to have your own life and not live for them, but it's supposed to have great courses for all the things you want to do, and the campus is great and the town is nice and you'd still be living on your own. Your parents wouldn't be constantly looking over your shoulder. Plus I really want to go there, and I don't want to go without you," she added sheepishly.

 

Alec laughed at her. "Yeah, I think I'm probably going to go to Alicante. Like you said, it's my parents' first choice for me, but it's also  _my_ first choice, and I know you want to go there, too. And I don't want to be without you, either."

 

"Look at us, being all sappy," Camille joked. "We better go back to being surly and mysterious quick, before people start to think we have emotions like regular human beings or something."

 

"We are regular human beings," Alec pointed out reasonably.

 

"Not me," Camille stated matter-of-factly. "I'm secretly a vampire. Sorry I forgot to mention that before now, I probably should have. It won't have a negative affect on our friendship or anything, right?"

 

Alec shook his head at her. "You're so random," he said, but there was affection in his tone.

 

"You love me, though."

 

"Maybe just a little."

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW so that got fluffier than I was planning towards the end
> 
> Again, thanks for reading! I realize this chapter was long because there were so many parts to it, but the others are gonna be a lot shorter because I'm not good at writing lengthy stuff, unfortunately. But I do try to at least make the writing quality good. Hope you enjoyed.
> 
> Also, last chapter I said this fic would be three or four chapters, but now I'm thinking it'll be longer, somewhere from 5-7.
> 
> P.S.— I personally like both Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato, though I do prefer Taylor. I mainly included that conversation because it's an argument I thought it'd be amusing for them to have.


	3. Moving Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Camille and Alec finally go to college and get settled in. Some new characters enter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry, I meant to have this chapter done by Monday, but some stuff happened and so those plans got put on hold. I honestly meant to have this chapter done days ago; I feel bad that it took this long.
> 
> This chapter is gonna be pretty boring, since it's basically just them arriving on campus, but I'm hopefully going to get a plan together for how I want the next chapters to go, and then I'll be able to write them a little longer and more interesting. Also, I apologize for any typos in the last chapter; I was writing it pretty late at night and didn't go back to proofread, and likewise apologize in advance for any typos in this chapter as well.
> 
> I'm also sorry if my description of moving to college is inaccurate. I've never done it, so I can't speak from experience, but I did my best to try to make it sound accurate-ish.

"Please?" Camille begged.

 

Both Alec's parents and her father looked at each other dubiously, then turned their gazes to her.

 

"Camille..." her father started. "It's four hours. You could easily get lost, and we wouldn't be there to help you. It's not that we don't trust you, but..."

 

"But it's that they're our cars, on our insurance, driving much farther than you ever have before, so we actually don't trust you this time," Maryse finished, smiling at them, somewhat wearily.

 

Camille crossed her arms and pouted. "It's mostly highway! Almost no one can get lost on the highway, and besides, even if we did go the wrong way, we'd have our phones with us on hand in the car, so we could stay in contact with you the entire time. We'd be fine! We're about to start _college_ , we'll be living on our own for the next nine months. This will be good practice!"

 

"Nine months in which you will hopefully  _not_ ever be driving four hours by yourselves," her father pointed out. "You won't ever get to experience college if you end up in a car accident somewhere in Oklahoma."

 

"We wouldn't end up like that!" Camille protested.

 

"They wouldn't end up like that if Alec were driving," Jace, who was standing next to them in the Lightwoods' driveway, specified. Their entire family had gathered there, as well as Camille and her father, to pack their trunks and begin the drive up to Alicante. Unfortunately, they had encountered a dilemma as soon as they tried to figure out seating arrangements. Camille had requested that she, Alec, Isabelle, and Jace be in one car, while their parents and Max drove the other, which had been met with immediate opposition by both the adults and Max, who wanted to go with the teenagers and felt offended by her suggestion.

 

The parents, for their part, felt that letting the teenagers drive one of the cars miles up the coast without adult supervision was a recipie for disaster. Alec wasn't sure they were wrong.

 

Camille turned her scowl on Jace. "Oh, shut up, you." She directed her attention back to their parents. "Alec has his license, I have mine—"

 

"Barely," murmured Alec.

 

Camille whirled around. "Do you _want_ to sabotage me?" she hissed.

 

Alec fixed her with a look. "I'm only saying that based on your driving history, their trepidations aren't entirely misplaced. You have gotten your license revoked twice."

 

Camille threw her hands up. "Fine, so Alec would be driving, then! I don't have to if you all seem to think it's  _such a bad idea_ —"

 

"It is," Alec, Jace, and Isabelle all chorused in unison.

 

Camille's glower was darkening by the second. "If Alec drove," she said through gritted teeth, "Could we go by ourselves?"

 

Their parents looked at each other with matching expressions. They were already getting tired of this argument. Alec could see their deteriorating resolve, and so could Camille. She grinned and leaned closer to him, whispering under her breath.

 

"I call shotgun."

 

***

 

"So," Camille began as she settled into the shotgun seat of the Lightwood's Mazda, and Alec could already tell that she wasn't going to stop talking for the majority of this ride. He sighed and mentally prepared himself. "I brought CDs. What do you guys want to listen to?"

 

"What do you have?" inquired Max from the middle of the backseat. The compromise they had ultimately agreed upon was that they could ride in the car by themselves if they wanted, but the adults would drive in front of them and they had to keep close behind, and they had to have their phones on them and were required to send their parents a text every half hour, just to be safe. Max had still insisted on being in the car with them, though, and was now seated between Jace and Isabelle in the back.

 

"Well," Camille began, revealing a giant stack of CDs, "let's see... Confident, Demi, Unbroken, Tell Me You Love Me—"

 

Alec cut her off. "Did you literally bring  _nothing_ but Demi Lovato albums?"

 

"No, not _only_ Demi Lovato, so you can chill," Camille said. "I knew you would want something else, because you sadly have none of your sister's taste in pop music, so I also brought Blink-182, Imagine Dragons, Disney, the Hamilton soundtrack, and just for you, because I love you, I brought 1989."

 

Alec rolled his eyes. "That's still almost half that are Lovato. Don't you listen to anything else?"

 

"Sometimes. So what do you want, Max?" she asked, craning her neck to look at the youngest Lightwood sibling. "I'll give you first pick."

 

"Hamilton," Max said decidedly, then added, "But only if we skip 'Say No To This.'"

 

"Of course we can," Camille agreed. "That song is gross anyway." She slid the disc into the CD player.

 

***

 

_"Oh, he got me_

_No, I never seen,_

_No one like him_

_Damn, he's everything_

_Girls, they want him_

_Guys, they wanna be_

_Who's that boy, w_ _ho's that boy?"_

 

 

 

A couple hours later, they were on the highway, and Camille and Isabelle were belting out the lyrics to "Who's That Boy", regardless of the effect on everyone else's ears; Jace had grabbed a pillow from the trunk and was pressing it over his ears while rythmically banging his head on the back of the passenger seat. Max had fallen asleep after about an hour and a half in the car despite the blaring music. They had finished the Hamilton soundtrack a little while after that, which had prompted Camille to exchange it for the Unbroken album, to Jace's anguish and Alec's exasperation, and now she and Isabelle were alternating between singing at the top of their lungs and trying to get him to join them. (He knew every one of the words, but he wasn't about to tell them that.)

 

"Oh come on, Alec!" Camille coaxed. "You know you love this song."

 

Alec snorted. "Whether or not I love this song is irrelevant. Anything simultaneously sung by you and Izzy ceases to qualify as music."

 

Camille punched him in the shoulder. Hard.

 

"Ouch! Jeez, Cam. If I crash the car I swear it's gonna be your fault."

 

"Well maybe you should have thought of that before you insulted Izzy and me. Our musical abilities are just fine, thank you very much. And you still love this song; I know 'cause of that 'Shadowhunters' conversation we had at one-thirty once."

 

Isabelle leaned towards them in interest. "What 'Shadowhunters' conversation at one-thirty?"

 

Camille twisted around to look her in the eye. "Okay, so how much of the show have you watched?"

 

"Like, about all of season 1, I think," Isabelle replied. "I know I've watched at least through the wedding episode."

 

"Okay, so then you'll get what we're talking about. You know the scene where they're in Pandemonium and Matt shoots the demon and Harry turns around and he's just like, 'Damn, that's the hottest guy I've ever seen', right?"

 

Izzy nodded. "Yeah."

 

"Is this song not absolutely perfect for their meeting?"

 

Izzy listened for a second, and then a giant incredulous grin spread over her face. "Oh my God. You're absolutely right. This  _exactly_ describes them meeting each other! Like, you can literally picture Harry singing it."

 

"I know, right!" Camille squealed, the sound piercing Alec's eardrums painfully. "That's what we both thought." She frowned at Alec judgementally. "And don't try to deny it."

 

"I wasn't denying anything!" Alec protested.

 

"Replay it," Izzy urged. Alec fought the urge to groan, though Jace seemed to have no such inhibitions. His protests were muffled from behind the pillow, but sounded like something along the lines of "I never should have decided to ride with you two." They both knew that the girls would be playing this song for the rest of the car ride now.

 

Camille reached over to the dashboard and hit the replay button, then turned to Alec with a sudden expression of excitement that instantly made Alec wary. "Hey, maybe you'll get a boyfriend this year! It's our first year of college. No better time to start having a romantic life."

 

Alec rolled his eyes at her. "We've been through this before. Approximately a hundred times. I don't need a boyfriend right now."

 

"But maybe it would make you happier," Camille argued. "Izzy, don't you think Alec could benefit from a boyfriend?"

 

"Damn straight," Isabelle agreed. "Let yourself live a little, big brother. Meet people. Go to parties. Talk to a few cute guys. Who knows, you might end up with a date."

 

"Or maybe you'll have a stunning roommate who'll sweep you off your feet," Camille suggested. "Or you'll fall for a cute barista at a coffeeshop."

 

"Okay, seriously?" Alec asked. "The barista cliche is such an overdone trope."

 

"Cliches are cliche for a reason," Camille stated wisely. "And it could happen."

 

"I don't want my life to be a rom-com, Cam."

 

"I know," she sighed, "but I just want you to be happy. You're my best friend."

 

Alec groaned inwardly. He was always weak for her "we're-best-friends-and-I'm-only-this-insistent-because-I-love-you" routine. "I hate to let you down, but I'm not exactly the kind of person who has a long line of guys lining up to date him."

 

It was Camille's turn to roll her eyes now. "Oh, please. That's only because you're too shy to put yourself out there. If you were a little less reserved, people would definitely notice you. I mean, look at you." She glanced over him with an appreciative look. "You've got looks, at least. Not to mention you're a great person who's totally worth dating, and any boy smart enough to look at you twice would realize that."

 

"Thanks for your faith in me, Cam," Alec said with a small smile. "Even if I still don't really believe you."

 

"Well, you should. I'm always right."

 

Alec side-eyed her with skeptical amusement, raising an eyebrow. "Sure you are. Except for that one time you said it was impossible to drink lemonade through your nose and then decided to try to prove it by—"

 

"Oh, shut up," Camille grumbled. "I'm right about  _this_ , at least."

 

"Uh huh."

 

"I'm serious, Alec. I'm sure this time. I have a good feeling about this." Seeing her friend about to make a sarcastic comment, she quickly continued, "Tell you what. Bet you twenty bucks that by the end of our freshmen year you'll have an awesome badass boyfriend that makes the rest of us drool with jealousy."

 

"I'll join you on that bet," Isabelle butted in.

 

"Thirty dollars, then," Camille amended. "Izzy and I will split the profits."

 

"Fine," said Alec. "I'll bet that by the end of our freshmen year you'll have tried to set me up multiple times and I'll still be single and lonely."

 

She nodded. "All right."

 

"All right."

 

"All right."

 

"All right, then."

 

"I'd say we shake on it, but that would probably be dangerous," Camille explained.

 

"Probably," Alec agreed.

 

"Just shake and make it official once we stop for gas," Jace groaned in exasperation. "Can you please be quiet now?"

 

***

 

Alec gently shook his little brother awake. "Maxie, wake up. We're here."

 

Max, who had slept for almost the entire car ride, opened his eyes groggily. "'R'we at Alicante? And don't call me Maxie," he mumbled through the vestiges of his nap.

 

Alec smiled fondly. "Yeah, we're in Idris. C'mon, we have to get out now so that Cam and I can find out where to go."

 

As Max stumbled out of the backseat, Alec and Camille took the opportunity to observe their surroundings. Alicante was located in the popular east-coast university town of Idris, a few miles north of New York City. It was well known for its diversity, walkable downtown area, good food, and art galleries, but what really made it so distinctive were the numerous glass towers that were scattered across the town. The towers were what had originally given Idris its fame and eventually what had drawn the founders of Alicante University to start their college there. Artists were known to be fond of photographing them on sunnier days, when the sunrises and sunsets were known to be brilliantly reflected on their gleaming surfaces, or the middle of the day when the sun glinted off their sides and threw blinding glares off the sides. Alec, Camille, Jace, and Isabelle had all unashamedly gawked as they had driven through the town center, staring at the passing shops and cafes, but mostly the glistening spires of glass that towered above them all. They had seen cities before, but no other cities they had ever been to had the look of Idris.

 

The buildings of Alicante itself were graceful and stately, bearing the grandeur of bygone eras in their embellishments and buttresses. The main part of the campus was mainly situated at the center of the town, but the facilities spread out from there, stretching throughout the city, and the living areas were fairly far away, the boys' and girls' dorms on opposite sides of the town.

 

The Lightwoods and Belcourts were currently parked in front of the registration center of the college at the center of the campus. Even this more modern building was elegantly sculpted, the architecture clearly styled to match those of the older school buildings. Because they had arrived a few days before orientation week technically started, the registration center wasn't swamped with other new freshmen also moving in, so they were able to find parking spots without difficulty.

 

Camille's face broke into a smile, and she spun to Alec with a giddy laugh. "Alec, this is it! We're actually here! College!" Her gaze swept around again. "And damn, if we've got to spend the next nine months of our lives somewhere, I don't think we picked too bad a place. What do you think?"

 

Alec couldn't deny that she was right. "Yeah, it's pretty nice."

 

"Pretty nice?  _Pretty nice_? Alec, this town is amazing! We're going to get to  _live here_!" she shouted, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him in her excitement.

 

Alec carefully reached up and removed her hands. He had never been one for too much physical contact, but Camille was the opposite, always instigating casual touches during conversations (usually to punch him in mock offense whenever he teased her), so he had gotten used to it. He smirked at her. "Excited much?"

 

She stared at him with some disbelief. "Are you  _not_? College is supposed to be the best part of most people's lives! We get to pretend to be adults without any of the responsibilities that come with actually being adults! It's great!"

 

Alec smiled back at her, unable to resist her contagious enthusiasm. "And I guess that learning things is completely irrelevant. Clearly not the point of college at all."

 

Camille sighed. "Oh, Alec. Please tell me you aren't going to just stay in your room and do homework the whole year. Promise that you'll at least try to socialize a little bit? This is one of our best chances to make friends besides each other. Not that I don't love you, but... it would be nice to have other people to talk to, wouldn't it?" She gave him a pleading glance.

 

Alec nodded. "I didn't mean we should _only_ study and do nothing else, I just wanted to point out that we actually applied to a billion different colleges and worked our asses off to get good grades so that we could get educations. But yes, I'm actually excited to be here, Cam," he reassured her. "And I will maybe try to make a few friends."

 

She squealed and jumped up and down. "Good. You need more friends. It'll do you good."

 

"Well, thanks, Cam," Alec muttered, but he was grinning at her.

 

Before she could reply, Maryse beckoned for them to follow everyone else inside. "It is you two who are going to college, not us," she scolded them in exasperation. "But you have to actually leave the parking lot for that to happen."

 

 They apologized and hastily hurried to catch up with the rest of their group, Camille pulling Alec behind her, both of them smiling.

 

***

 

As soon as they stepped out of the building, Camille started complaining. "This is so dumb! Why is your dorm so far away from mine?"

 

"Probably to try limit the amounts of accidental drunken sex that happens after parties," Isabelle supplied helpfully.

 

"EW," Max said, covering his ears. " _Gross_ , Izzy."

 

"Sorry, Max," Isabelle said, having the good grace to look at least a little abashed.

 

"What, so they just ignore the fact that gay people exist?" Camille asked.

 

"Um, when they founded the school, yeah, pretty much," Isabelle replied. "Though, to be fair, being gay wasn't such a common concept back then."

 

"So when Alec and I want to see each other, we have to walk all the way across town?" Camille inquired in indignation. "We'll spend half our time just going back and forth!"

 

"And maybe a more current issue, who's going to go with who to get set up in our rooms?" Alec asked.

 

"I'm going with you," Camille's father said to her with a crooked smile. "I know you want to get rid of me as soon as possible, but still I want to see you one last time and make sure you're moved in before we leave."

 

"Oh my God, Dad," Camille moaned. "Stop being so mushy."

 

"I'll go with Cammie, too," Isabelle decided.

 

"Me too," added Max.

 

Alec frowned at his brother. "Traitor." Max just shrugged unapologetically.

 

"Don't worry, I'll come with you," Jace reassured him. "You will still get to gaze upon my beautiful features for a little while longer before being deprived of my gorgeous visage until next summer."

 

Alec and Camille both rolled their eyes simultaneously. "So where should we meet up with you once we're done?" Robert asked.

 

"Back here should be fine," Maryse said. "We'll go to the dorms, make sure the kids are unpacked and good to go, then reconvene to say goodbye before leaving. Does that work for everyone?"

 

They all answered an affirmative.

 

"All right, then," Izzy said, clapping her hands together. "Let's get going."

 

***

 

Alec's dorm room was fairly plain. It was on the south side of the large stone dormitory, with two windows and one small adjoining bathroom. The two sides of the room were virtually indistinguishable, each one equipped with a twin bed, desk, and dresser. The only difference was that the right side of the room already showed signs of another person having been there before they arrived. The bed on the was already covered with clean sheets and a cover, and a suitcase was lying half-open on top of it. The desk likewise had personal items placed on it; a framed picture of a group of teenagers stood next to a stack of books, and an array of pens lay neatly side by side next to each other. An unobtrusive lamp had been placed on top of the bedside table.

 

Their parents were still down at the car unloading Alec's bags, which they had insisted Alec and Jace not bother themselves with, so it was just the two of them for the time being. Jace looked around appraisingly. "Well, it's not the epitome of luxury, but you can probably manage," he said, striding into the room like he owned it and proceeding to pull a the desk chair and flop into it. "Hope your roommate isn't an ass."

 

Alec sighed. "I really appreciate how optimistic you are. It's definitely helping my anxiety levels."

 

He had secretly been fairly stressed about the whole roommate thing for a while. He realized that the majority of people went through college with the same arrangement just fine, but he couldn't help but feel that there were just too many variables to take into account. Jace had said it casually, but Alec found it all too likely that his roommate would be someone he couldn't get along with, and that seemed like a very easy way to make the next nine months of his life hell. What if his roommate _was_  a jerk, or was messy, or obsessively clean, or had some weird, annoying habit that drove Alec crazy? What if they just pure hated each other? There were so many ways it could go wrong.

 

Just then, as he was mentally agonizing over the possible scenarios, someone entered the room, stopping abruptly when he saw them.

 

The boy standing in the doorway blinked for a second, seemingly to account for the sudden appearance of people in his room (Alec could only assume this was his roommate), then quickly recovered. "Well, hello," he said pleasantly, and Alec observed that he had a slight British accent. He was wearing a generic gray T-shirt and jeans, and his hair was a peculiar sliver color, which matched his eyes. His expression, though rather bemused, was mild, and the bones of his face were graceful and fine. He was carrying a heavy-looking backpack over his shoulder.

 

"Hello," Jace replied breezily, taking the abrupt entrance of the stranger in stride. "Is this your room?"

 

"Why yes, it is," the boy replied. "Is it yours?"

 

"My brother's," Jace answered, gesturing towards Alec.

 

"Ah," said the boy, turning to Alec and holding out his hand. "James Carstairs, but most people just call me Jem, so you're welcome to as well. Pleased to make you acquaintance."

 

Alec shook his hand awkwardly, not sure what you were supposed to say to the person who was going to be living in the same room as you for the next nine months. "Alexander Lightwood. But everyone calls me Alec, so... yeah. I'd prefer if you called me that."

 

"And I'm Jace," Jace said, raising his hand to indicate himself from the chair, even though there was no one else in the room who could have spoken. "I'm just here to help him move in."

 

"Nice to meet both of you, then," Jem responded. "I hope it's all right that I took the bed on the right," he added, addressing Alec. "I can always move if you prefer."

 

"No, it's fine," said Alec. "I don't really have any preference. Um, I would get my stuff set up, but my parents are still unpacking my bags from the car, and they told us to go on ahead..." He motioned weakly towards the general direction of the street where they had parked.

 

They stood in uncomfortable silence for a few seconds before Jace spoke up to break the pause in conversation. "You'd better be prepared. It's likely that if you're living with Alec, you'll eventually wake up one morning and discover you've suffocated under an avalanche of books."

 

Alec shot him a glare. "Oh, shut up. He's exaggerating," he said to Jem.

 

"You're right," Jace conceded. "He won't have the chance to suffocate, because the entire building will be overflowing with a flood of reading material and no one will be able to get in." Jem laughed out loud at that.

 

"It's quite all right," he assured them. "My two best friends are exactly the same, and they haven't killed me yet. I don't mind. What do you like to read?"

 

"Fantasy, mostly," Alec said, somewhat hesitantly. It was a question he hated answering. He usually didn't like to talk to people about books unless he knew them well; he got so deeply invested in books that in his mind, it was too personal a topic for casual conversation. "But I also like the occasional realistic fiction novel, if it's well written. Science and historical fiction, not as much."

 

Jem nodded. "I personally like nonfiction, so long as it makes me think, although, like you, I can appreciate well-written realistic fiction. My friends enjoy older classics immensely. Have you read _Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe_?"

 

Alec brightened and nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, have you? I thought it was great. The prose was really beautiful."

 

"Agreed," said Jem. "I especially liked how the author left Ari's sexuality open to interpretation. I mean, instinctually it would make sense to say that he's bi or pansexual, but the way he's portrayed, it could also just be that he loved Dante so much that Dante's gender didn't even matter to him."

 

Jace rolled his eyes and leaned back against the desk dramatically. "Well, so much for worrying about whether or not you'll like your roommate. Looks like you two will get along great."

 

***

 

"Hey," Camille greeted Alec as soon as he walked up to where she, Max, Isabelle, and her dad were standing, waiting for them in the parking lot. "How'd it go? Did you meet your roommate?"

 

"It went fine," Alec replied. "And yeah, I did. He's nice. Polite, too. And he's read  _Ari and Dante_."

 

"Oh, boy," Camille said, throwing up her hands. "I guess I can just bid you goodbye, then. You'll be attached to him at the hip for the rest of the year."

 

"Stop it," Alec said, shoving her shoulder. "You sound like Jace. He said the same thing."

 

"Great minds think alike."

 

"But fools seldom differ."

 

"I hate it when you know the endings to old adages."

 

"Sorry that I'm smart enough to counter your arguments."

 

It was Camille's turn to shove him. "Irritatingly smart. It's annoying. Stop it." The rest of their group chose that moment to walk up, so their conversation was cut short.

 

The goodbyes Alec got from his parents were relatively short, as they had never been much for overblown sentimentality, but they were still sincere, telling him that they were proud and that they would miss him while he was away. Camille's father took longer, to her chagrin, embracing her multiple times and praising her before stepping back. Predictably, though, it was Alec's siblings who held them up the most. Jace acted unaffected, but both Alec and Camille were pretty sure that he held back tears at one point, and he hugged them both tightly before stepping back. Isabelle had less luck with concealing her emotions. She bit her lip and blinked hard, whispering something in Camille's ear that made her laugh before coming over to Alec and proceeding to do the same.

 

"You better keep in contact, big brother," she half-whispered, half-sniffled into his ear as she clasped her arms around his neck tightly. "Call me every night, and tell me  _everything_ that happens to you. Don't exclude any details. And you have to come back to visit us at least sometimes."

 

"Every night, Iz?" he asked jokingly. "Don't know if I'll be able to call you  _that_ often. You and Cam both seem to forget that I'll have actual work to do sometimes."

 

"Yes, every night," Izzy insisted, pulling back to glare at him through red-rimmed eyes. "Cammie already promised she would. You have to do it. Otherwise I'll have people asking, 'Hey Izzy, how's that brother of yours doing in college?' and I'll have to answer 'Well, gosh, I don't know, because he  _never calls me_. He could be dead, who knows, certainly not me,' and then they'll think that I'm a terrible sister and you don't call me because you hate me and then I'll lose all my friends. So you are morally obligated to sustain my social life by calling me every single night, Alec."

 

He chuckled into her hair. "I'll try my best. What if Camille drags me out to a club one night and gets me drunk and I forget?"

 

"Okay, first of all, we both know you would never in a million years let Cammie take you out, let alone get drunk," Isabelle rationalized. "Second, even if you did, I would expect you to drunk call me, so that I could record the conversation and use it as blackmail later."

 

"Nice to see that you're making the best of my time in college," Alec stated dryly.

 

"Well, I have to do something to make this situation humorous. You're leaving us for the _whole school year_ , Alec," Izzy said with a small sob. "I'm going to miss you so much."

 

"I'm going to miss you guys too," he admitted, hugging her tighter. "But it's not like I'll be erased from your lives; I'll still be able to contact you and talk."

 

"I know. But it won't be the same."

 

"It won't, but you'll be okay. You always are. You're strong, Izzy, one of the strongest people I know. We'll make it work."

 

Isabelle sniffed and stepped back, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "Okay. Okay, I'm good now. But you still have to call me every night. I'll be expecting it, and I  _will_ remember if you miss a night."

 

Alec grinned at her crookedly. "No promises. But I'll try."

 

It was Max's turn then. He bid them both goodbye solemnly, easily more put together than either Jace or Isabelle had been, hugging them both and saying that he would miss them equally. Camille ruffled his hair when he stopped in front of her.

 

"We'll keep up our Risk competitions, right?" she asked. "I'm only a few games behind you, I'm pretty sure. What's your ratio?"

 

"31 games won, 7 lost," Max said, looking up at her. "What's yours?"

 

Camille cringed. "So maybe I'm not as _quite_ as close to claiming your title as I originally thought..."

 

"What's your ratio?" Max persisted.

 

She sighed. "26 won, 9 lost."

 

Max smiled triumphantly. "We can keep playing. So that I can keep beating you."

 

Camille gasped. "Jerk," she said, shaking her head as she pulled him in for another hug. "I  _will_ beat you eventually."

 

"Keep dreaming," Max muttered from under her arm.

 

Camille pushed him away playfully with a grin. "Okay, leave. All of you, leave. We adore you, but seriously, you need to let us go. Go. Now." She made shooing motions with her hands, ushering them all towards the cars. "Bye! Love you guys! We'll miss you! We promise to call soon!"

 

They insisted on one last hug each, but Camille eventually managed to force them all into the vehicles. Isabelle, Jace, and Max rolled the windows down and waved as they pulled out of the parking lot, and the two teenagers waved back from the curb, standing and watching them go until their families were out of sight. It was then that Camille turned to Alec, her shoulders slumping a little.

 

"Honestly," Camille said with an affectionate expression on her face. "I love my dad, and I love your siblings, but they can be clingy sometimes. We're eighteen, we'll be able to survive."

 

"Speak for yourself," Alec replied. "And they're not being clingy. We are going to be living without them for the next three quarters of the year, after all. I'm pretty sure it's natural to want to say goodbye before that."

 

"Yeah, true," she admitted, then took a minute to relax, eyes skimming over their surroundings. "So," Camille breathed out slowly, looking smaller and losing most of her bravado now that the others were gone. Alec couldn't tell if she was relieved or if the gravity of recent developments were just catching up with her. "This is it. For real. We're in college." She paused. "Wow."

 

Alec gazed at her curiously. "Literally two seconds ago you were saying that our families shouldn't worry and we had everything handled; now you look like you want to chase after the cars and beg them to take you back. What changed? Did you develop bipolarity while I was gone?"

 

"I don't know," Camille said. "It's just... a lot to take in, all at once. And I guess I'm torn between being super excited and being terrified? And so now it's all colliding and I don't know what to think?" She laughed and shook her head. "Ugh, now that I say it out loud it sounds so cliche."

 

"Cliches are cliche for a reason," Alec said, quoting her from earlier in the car ride and making her smile. "It makes perfect sense. I get it. Tell you what," he decided, "I saw a coffee shop close to here as we were driving into town. D'you want to go get something to drink? We can keep talking about it on the way if you want."

 

Camille nodded gratefully. "Sure. Which way?"

 

"That way," Alec said, pointing towards a street behind them that led in the general direction of the boys' dorms. They turned and started walking, matching their steps without thinking about it after so many years of keeping pace with each other.

 

Camille, despite her internal conflicts, walked with her head high and a natural confidence in her step that Alec couldn't remember her ever being without. She might have been older now, but somehow looked just the same as the day he had met her, with her decisive stride and determined expression. Her heels had gained height and she looked less visibly tense than she had been that first day of the eighth grade, but she was still the same girl who had defended him in the hallway. Her fundamental personality didn't seem to change.

 

She had dressed to impress today, so Alec had known off the bat that she was at least a little nervous (he had learned that Camille put more effort into her outfit when confronted with situations in which she felt vulnerable). She appeared to have gone for a sort of chic casual look (though he wasn't sure if that was the right term; he had absolutely no idea how to correctly describe clothing choices). She was wearing faded, artfully ripped skinny-jeans that had gold embroidery around the cuffs and on the pockets, adding an interesting glimmer to the bluish-gray color. Her T-shirt was a similar color, fading from dark cerulean at the bottom to white at the top, the neckline wide in the kind of way that was designed to make it slip off her shoulders, and the tank top she wore underneath was sky blue. There was a hoodie tied around her waist that was probably designer, slung around her hips in a way that looked effortless, but Alec suspected was anything but. She had probably spent ten minutes alone on getting it to hang exactly that way.

 

Her makeup was light but visible, her lips glossed a delicate shade of pink and her mascara feathering her lashes, making them look extra pronounced every time she blinked. A thin rim of eyeliner ringed her green eyes, and light blue eyeshadow was dusted atop her lids.

 

Camille's hair was done up in a loose braid that left a few strands out at the front, and it swung as she walked across the pavement, swishing back and forth quietly. Her shoes were white with four-inch stiletto heels. Her earrings matched her clothes, too. They were mismatched, but she had somehow made them work— one dangled from her right ear in the shape of a sparrow, while the other was a silver stud with a blue crystal set in it. Overall the look was fairly subtle, but it merged together nicely.

 

"So what's your roommate like?" Alec asked, when it became clear that Camille wasn't going to speak up.

 

She shrugged. "I can't say yet. She wasn't in the room when I got there, but half of it was already covered in her stuff, just random things everywhere. Her suitcase was open, too. Kind of in a way that made it look like she had thrown everything out because she was really pissed off at the time. I hope she isn't prone to wild fits of rage, because then I'm not sure how I would cope, bu messiness I'd be fine with, just so long as she doesn't migrate to my side, too."

 

"Do you know what her name is, at least?" Alec inquired.

 

"Yeah, Jessica or Josephine or something," Camille said, waving a hand as if to dismiss the girl's name as insignificant. "I remember it was kind of weird."

 

"Oh," Alec said. "Well, I hope she's not too bad and you end up liking her. It would suck to be stuck with a terrible roommate."

 

"Yeah, like you were so worried about before we got here," replied Camille, nudging his shoulder.

 

"You noticed?" Alec asked sheepishly. "I didn't think I was that obvious about it."

 

"Please," scoffed Camille. "I've known you for five years. I know when something is bothering you. But hey, turns out you had nothing to worry about, with the wonderful well-read roomie you ended up with. Apparently it's mine who's still to be determined."

 

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Alec assured her. "Even if she does suck, you'll be able to wrangle her, I'm sure."

 

"True," acknowledged Camille with a flip of her hair. "I will teach her to fear my wrath."

 

"But only if she's a jerk."

 

"Of course. Though I'll have to intimidate her a little no matter what she's like, just to be safe, of course..."

 

"Cam. Don't terrify the poor girl."

 

"I would never."

 

"This is it," Alec said, stopping suddenly in front of a comfortably-sized, cozy-looking cafe with large windows out front, showing the interior of a softly lit shop with gleaming copper appliances and skylights in the ceiling. Both windows had the same logo pressed onto them, a circle divided into quadrants, each with a different picture inside of it. One had a leaf, one a book, one had a star, and the last held a moon. On a sign above the door was a hand-painted sign that read "Downworld Cafe."

 

"Quirky," Camille commented, before swinging the door outward and stepping inside. Alec followed after her.

 

They got a better look at the inside of the place once they crossed the threshold. There were two rooms; one being the one they were currently standing in and one that was off to the left, on the other side of an archway set into an exposed brick wall covered in warm abstract paintings. The first room appeared to be the main area, with the counter and display case situated by the right wall, and a large chalkboard menu hung up across from them. A few people were standing in line, observing the options on the chalkboard or in the case (which, admittedly, did seem to have a delicious selection of pastries in it), or staring at their phones as they waited. Alec looked at Camille.

 

"You wanna get in line?"

 

"Sure," she said with a fond eye roll. "I mean, it's not like we came here to hang around until we got arrested for loitering." She walked over to the end of the line, behind two teenagers, a girl and a boy about their age who were both absorbed in their phones, looking bored. The girl had electric blue streaks in her black hair and was extremely pale. The other, the boy, had soft black curls, toffee colored skin, and an angelic face that seemed to rest in an expression of perpetual annoyance.

 

Camille and Alec waited behind them, shifting on their feet and looking at the menu. "So..." Camille started, breaking the silence. "What are you getting?"

 

"Probably a vanilla latte," he replied, and then eyed the display case calculatingly. "And a coffee eclair. You?"

 

"Just my usual," she answered. "Black with some sugar. I still don't get people who get milkshakes and call it coffee. That's just gross." Her gaze caught on the pastry case as well. "Though while we're at it... those look excellent. I might get a chocolate croissant, too."

 

"The chocolate croissants are mediocre at best," said a monotone voice in front of them. "Almond is really a better choice."

 

They looked over to see that it was the angel-faced boy. He had looked up and was gazing at them with, if it were possible, even more disinterest than when he had been when staring at his phone screen.

 

"He's right," the girl standing next to him, she, too raising her head and fixing her gaze on them. They both had similar black eyes, seeming to contemplate Alec and Camille as they stood there as if they were being judged in court. "The chocolate ones aren't nearly as good as they look. But the lemon scones are even better than the almond croissants. Those are what I'd recommend. Though there is something to be said for the palmiers..."

 

Alec and Camille looked at them blankly, neither having any idea how to reply to the random intrusion into their conversation by two strangers.

 

"Are you freshmen?" the girl asked sympathetically, seeming to take pity on them.

 

"Um, yeah," Camille responded after a second, blinking a couple times. "We just moved in to our dorms."

 

The girl nodded. "Well, welcome to Alicante, then, I guess. You picked the right coffee shop to come to. This is the best one near campus. And, thankfully, not that many people know about it, so it's never very crowded. I'm Lily, by the way. And that's Raphael," she said, pointing over her shoulder to the scowling boy.

 

He just nodded at them curtly. "Watch out for the Cohort, don't eat at the cafeteria on the north side of campus, and be sure to return your library books on time, and you'll probably survive all four years, until you graduate and realize you have absolutely no idea how to survive with the education you received." He went back to his phone. Alec couldn't tell very well from where he was standing, but it looked like Raphael was playing Angry Birds.

 

He was wondering about what 'the Cohort' was when Camille started talking. She could have adapted to almost any conversation, no matter how abrupt, Alec thought with amazement. "What's wrong with the north cafeteria?"

 

"It was found infested with roaches last year," Lily explained. "They say it's good to eat in now, but people still find questionable things in the food. One of my friends swore there were antennae in her pasta once."

 

Camille wrinkled her nose. "Gross. Thanks for the advice. I'm Camille. And this is Alec, my best friend." She gestured to Alec, who was standing slightly behind her, in the same careless way Lily had indicated Raphael. It was like there was some unspoken code about talking to another girl that required you to act as any boys present were part of the decor.

 

"Nice to meet you both," Lily said. "Although, really, more like solidly average. Greetings are rarely actually _nice_." She then turned to look at Raphael, who appeared to be struggling with his game. "Raphael, honestly. That is _not_ the way you play Angry Birds. Your arcs are all off. Give me the phone."

 

"Don't tell me how to play," Raphael snapped, pulling the phone away from her grasping hands and proceeding to instigate an argument between him and Lily, both of them completely ignoring Camille and Alec like their brief conversation had never happened. The other two teenagers looked at each other helplessly, neither entirely sure of what had just occurred. Camille shrugged and made a 'Well, that was weird' face at Alec. He nodded in agreement.

 

They waited a few more minutes for a customer who held up the line by ordering what must have been the most complicated drink in existence, then listened to Raphael and Lily's orders when they stepped up to the cash register. Lily stated their orders quickly and tonelessly in the sort of way people did when they had been getting the same thing at the same place for months.  "One blueberry scone, one BLT, one coffee with two creams and a sugar, and one espresso to go, please." The barista nodded and scribbled it down on a notepad, then ripped off the piece of paper and handed it to another employee.

 

When it was their turn, Camille ordered for both her and Alec, adding in a palmier. "I just wanted to try it out," she explained at Alec's inquisitive expression. "We have to try everything they have over time so that we can know the best things to get in the future."

 

That was when it hit him. Maybe his reaction had just been more delayed than Camille's, but that one throwaway comment suddenly made Alec realize how much their lives had suddenly changed, just in the course of a few hours. They lived here now. Here, in this town, in Idris,  _by themselves_. This place was going to be their home for the next nine months. They would sleep in new rooms, go to new classes, have to form completely new bonds with completely new people, none of whom they knew. They would meet for coffee at unfamiliar places before and after class; maybe here, like Camille had implied with her suggestion that they try everything so they knew what to get in the future. They would worry about their college-student finances (meaning they probably shouldn't have started by getting such expensive foods at a cafe.) They would be doing this all on their own, trying to function as semi-adults without any help.

 

Alec was suddenly indescribably glad that he had Camille here with him.

 

But all he said was, "Cam, you realize we're going to be broke way before we're able to eat everything they have here."

 

"True," she sighed. "I guess we should think about saving, or we might have to eat in the north cafeteria. And personally, I'm not the biggest fan of cockroaches."

 

"Well, personally, neither am I."

 

They traded desolate looks, and then both broke out laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry the ending is was so rushed; I'm just tired and really wanted to be done with this chapter, so it got sloppy. I regret that the writing towards the end was such bad quality, I'm just so exhausted but AAAAHHHHH, IT'S SO BAD
> 
> Is the thing I did with 'Shadowhunters' weird? I thought it kind of was, but I still wanted to include it anyways.
> 
> Despite that stuff, hope this wasn't complete trash. Thanks for reading.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, sorry if this was too short, but I hope you liked it regardless. No guarantees about when I'll post the next chapter, but hopefully soon and not months from now.
> 
> Thank you for taking the time to read!


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